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Ireland has turned its back on obsurantism and said yes to a plan to raise the political voice of Europe in world
affairs, based on early results Saturday.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the treaty aimed at streamlining the
operations of the European Union after rejecting the same pact only last year.

"Ireland has lanced the Euro sceptic boil and finally turned on the Murdoch media which has come to dominate popular opinion through such rags as the "Irish" Sun, said Jem Casey, the West of Ireland commentator.

Voters delivered a
"convincing win" for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which would
give the E.U. its first full-time president (Tony Blair?) and foreign policy chief.

Approval of the treaty follows a
bitterly fought campaign that raised concerns among foreign investors
about Ireland's commitment to the 27-nation bloc but ultimately hinged
on Ireland's profound economic troubles.

The yes side had a
roughly 60 percent majority in the early vote counting.

Pro-treaty groups, determined to avoid a repeat of last year's no
vote, enlisted the support of prominent businesses in Ireland, like the
American chipmaker Intel and the budget airline Ryanair, as well as
Irish celebrities like the U2 guitarist The Edge and the poet Seamus Heaney. They argued that the country had benefited mightily from E.U. membership.

Over the last year and a half, the so-called Celtic Tiger has lost its
roar, as Ireland has suffered through one of the worst real estate
busts of any country in the world.

With the economy continuing to function largely because of E.U. support, in the form of liquidity from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, many voters apparently decided that thumbing their noses at their European neighbors would have been a bad idea.

"Ireland has sent a very strong signal to the governments and the
boardrooms of the world that it is fully engaged in Europe," said
Brigid Laffan, professor of European politics at University College
Dublin.

A no vote by Ireland would have buried the Lisbon Treaty for good,
creating institutional chaos in Brussels. Analysts say it would have
killed any remaining momentum for further enlargement of the 27-nation
E.U., beyond Croatia, which is already in advanced negotiations, and
Iceland, which is considered a shoe-in once it gets its economy mended.

The referendum is subject to unanimous approval by the
E.U.'s 27 members, but, the Irish do not
get the final word. Poland has not yet adopted the treaty, though
President Lech Kaczynski said prior to the Irish vote that he would
sign if the referendum passed. In the Czech Republic, the sometimes difficult President Vaclav Klaus also has yet to sign the accord, which is being reviewed by the country's constitutional court.

Mr. Klaus could try to
hold out until next spring, when Britain is required to hold
parliamentary elections. David Cameron,
leader of the Conservative Party, widely expected to be the next
prime minister, has vowed to hold a referendum on the treaty; given the
prevailing mood of Euroskepticism in Britain, that would almost
certainly result in a no vote.

In the Irish vote, treaty supporters overcame opposition of a possible loss of Irish
sovereignty. The very word "treaty" resonates deeply in the Irish
psyche; the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which ended the war of
independence from Britain, resulted in the Irish civil war when treaty
opponents took up arms against supporters.

E.U. officials say the treaty is necessary to help governments
coordinate policies on issues like terrorism and the environment in a
bloc whose membership has grown by a dozen countries over the last five
years, making existing governance processes unwieldy.

Marching alongside the Irish tricolour in Clifden's St Patrick's Day parade were no less than three Irishmen wearing signboards featuring
photos of Obama and proclaiming "Saint Barack" and "President Obama: a
New Hope." The almost entirely Irish crowd roared as they marched past.

Forget about the luck of the
Irish. Ireland is facing its most serious economic crisis in decades.
Its government -- led by bumbling Taoiseach Brian Cowen -- inspires the
same sort of confidence that charging Gen. George Pickett does among
Civil War historians, and after rejecting the Lisbon Treaty in 2008,
its relationship with the European Union is anything but stable.

Enter Obama, who despite the widespread cynicism accompanying
Ireland's political and economic woes, is enjoying levels of Irish
support and enthusiasm unseen since Kennedy became the first sitting
U.S. president to visit the Emerald Isle in 1963.

I was recently at the St. Patrick's Day parade in Clifden, Co.
Galway, during the course of a four-month study program on the island,
and to say that the European attitude toward the United States has
undergone a seismic shift since Obama's inauguration would be a gross
understatement. Marching alongside the traditional tricolour of Ireland
were nothing less than three Irishmen wearing signboards featuring
photos of Obama and proclaiming "Saint Barack" and "President Obama: a
New Hope." The almost entirely Irish crowd roared as they marched past.

In the days and weeks following Obama's inauguration, which was
widely viewed in pubs across Ireland, the American president has proven
a topic of conversation nearly as popular as the current economic
crisis and football, or, soccer. The anger directed toward George W.
Bush and the United States following the invasion and occupation of
Iraq has largely subsided, with the Irish in particular looking to
Obama for positive change.

Of course, as always happens when any European country gets excited
about anything remotely progressive in the United States, conservatives
will likely wonder, "Great. Who cares?" In physical size, Ireland is,
after all, slightly larger than West Virginia. Such critics, though,
would be wise to remember that in the United States alone, more than 40
million Americans claim Irish descendancy, and the tiny island has been
hugely significant in the development of American culture and economy.
Just ask Pat Buchanan.

In visiting Derry in Northern Ireland, where recent killings by IRA
splinter cells have once again threatened to destabilize the peace
process, I had an opportunity to meet John Hume, former SDLP leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner, who insisted that the efforts of Americans
such as Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and George Mitchell in
advancing peace are not forgotten in both the North and South. Hundreds
of other American mayors, congressmen, senators, and civic leaders have
further contributed to the relationship.

"We're living in a much smaller world," said Hume. "It
should be the objective of the major leaders of the world to ensure a
world without war and advance the philosophy of conflict
resolution...spilling sweat together and not blood."

As Hume spoke, I could not help but think of Obama's recent European
tour, in which he rose above the ideological differences of the past,
apologizing for America's "arrogance" of the past, called for G20 and
NATO nations to take the lead in meaningful nuclear disarmament, and,
before the Turkish parliament, declared that "the United States is not,
and never will be, at war with Islam." The trip was greeted with
glowing reviews in the Irish press.

As John Hume said, "The essence of our unity in the modern world is respect for our diversity."

Just over 100 days into his presidency and evidenced by the reaction
to his progressive agenda here in Ireland, Barack Obama seems the
perfect man to deliver the message.

Dan Treul recently finished his English degree at Aquinas College in
Grand Rapids, MI where he has lived for 19 years. He is particularly
interested in the arts, travel, and political communication. Former
editor of The Saint
student newspaper, Dan currently works as a freelance writer and
contributor for Aquinas College Relations. His creative and nonfiction
work has appeared in several local publications, as well as been
featured by "Washington Week with Gwen Ifill" online.

Conor Cruise O'Brien, an Irish
diplomat, politician, man of letters and public intellectual who staked
out an independent position for Ireland in the United Nations
and, despite his Catholic origins, championed the rights of
Protestants in Northern Ireland has. He was 91

Once described by the social critic Christopher Hitchens
as "an internationalist, a wit, a polymath and a provocateur," Mr.
O'Brien was a rare combination of scholar and public servant who
applied his erudition and stylish pen to a long list of causes, some
hopeless, others made less so by his combative reasoning. When called
upon, he would put down his pen and enter the fray, more often than not
emerging bruised and bloodied.

As a diplomat, he helped chart Ireland's course as an independent,
anticolonialist voice at the United Nations and played a critical role
in the United Nations intervention in Congo in 1961.

The spirit that moved Eire to declare her
independence moved two of her western isles to assert their own
independence of Eire. For 40 years the 200 fisherfolk of Turn and
Turbot have maintained an "untaxable republic," refusing to pay taxes
to County Galway on the mainland.

Last week, as often before, Galway Council sent the bailiffs to Turn and
Turbot to collect £12,000 ($48,000) in back taxes.

But the bailiffs were baffled again. Nobody was home. Every house was
silent. The cattle had been turned out on the common where they could
not be seized. The previous night, every Turner and Turboter had
shoved off together to "visit relatives" in Aran, 25 miles away.

Retired US senator George Mitchell, who steered
the tough negotiations that led to lasting peace in Northern Ireland,
threw his support Thursday behind fellow Democrat Barack Obama in the
US presidential race.

Speaking to local newspaper editors in his
home state of Maine, Mitchell said he was "quite good friends" with
Republican contender John McCain, having sat in the US Senate with him
for 10 years.

"I think he's a good guy; I just think that Barack
Obama is the right guy to be president," he told the Morning Sentinel
and Kennebec Journal editorial board, in an interview carried on their
website.

Mitchell said am Obama presidency would represent a sea
change after the eight-year administration of President George W. Bush
which, he argued, had landed the United States in a serious financial
crisis and lowered the nation's esteem in the eyes of the world.

Of
McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Mitchell -- who
brokered the Good Friday peace accord in 1998 that ended three decades
of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland that cost around 3,000 lives
-- said she was unknown to him.

Her husband Todd Palin, a
endurance snowmobile racer, is to campaign for McCain and his wife this
weekend in Maine where the Republican ticket has the support of the
state's 30,000-member snowmobile association.